Complete repair of your corrupt Excel file, extracting every piece of recoverable information within the file, such as formatting, formulas, and other other spreadsheet properties.

We've listed the most popular Excel Repair Freeware. Referring to this table, you can choose between Freeware and Shareware based on your demands.

Common Problems of Excel Opening and Possible Solutions

We have summed up some common simple Excel opening problems along with its possible solutions. In the following simple cases, you can follow the solutions and try to repair your Excel files manually before using any Excel repair software.

Note: Please copy the damaged Excle file before manual repair, and work on the copy.

2. Symptom 2: Can open a newly created Excel workbook, while cannot access a previously savedChoose the inaccessible Excel workbook in the popup "Open" dialog box, click the arrow beside the "Open" button, and then select "Open and Repair" from the list.

If the above "Open and Repair" solution does not work, try to import the damaged workbook as external data to open it:1) Build a new blank workbook, click on "Data" tab, and then follow the instructions/wizard to import the workbook as external data.2) Save the new workbook.

3. Symptom 3: Receive an error message when you open an Excel file - "The file may be read-only, or you may be trying to access a read-only location. Or, the server the document is stored on may not be responding."This problem may occur when there is not enough free space on drive C. You can uninstall some unwanted programs or free up more disk space using Disk Cleanup. To start Disk Cleanup, click "Start" button - "All Programs" - "Accessories" - "System Tools" - "Disk Cleanup".Besides, you can remove Excel temporary files to get more space on drive C. Normally the path of Temp folder will be "C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel" in Windows XP, and "C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\" in Windows 7 and above. Empty the Temp folder and restart Excel.

Symptom 4: Receive an error message when you open an Excel file - "the file is an unrecognizable format" or "Microsoft Excel has encountered a problem and needs to close."Start MS Word program from "Start menu", and drag the inaccessible Excel file into Word. If the content can be displayed in Word, create a new workbook, copy the content into the new workbook and then save it. Only plain text can be retrieved in this case, while original formulas will be lost.

Symptom 5: Can open an Excel file, but can not edit or print itSave the Excel file in SYLK (Symbolic Link) format, close it, reopen it, and then copy all content into a new blank workbook and save it.

Solution 2:1. Right click the Excel file, select "Properties", and you can see a message "This file came from another computer and might be blocked to help protect this computer" in "Security" area2. Click "Unblock" button next to the message

For more problems and possible remedies, please refer to the following articles:

Enable AutoRecover in Excel once the file is repairedA great variety of reasons can cause problems in opening Excle files, and it is quite difficult (even unable) to retrieve all data within the presentation. To avoid losing data permanently, we suggest you enable "AutoRecover", or backup Excle files with Data Backup Software in time.

Our editors have done the following work to save your time:

List all the popular Excel Recovery Software (including the best freeware)